New Bern Home Sales

The Tyson Group Realtors-Steve and Jana J. Tyson want to thank you for the opportunity to market your property for sale. As part of this process, we are keeping you up to date with the current market trends. The tables below represent the closed sales in this market in the last 30 days; sales since the beginning of the year; and current inventory levels.



You will note that since the beginning of the year 87% of the homes sold in this market are under 250K and in the last 30 days 91% of the sales were under 250K.



It is definitely a buyer’s market and quite competitive. And, if you have a home over 250K, it is far more competitive. Sales over 250K represent between 10-11% of the total sales and 33.6% of the inventory. Positioning your home to outperform competitive properties is crucial, no matter what price range of home. As an example, look at sales in the last 30 days and compare to the data in the second table which represents the total percentage of inventory by price range.



Homes Sold in the 400-500K range represented 2% of total sales and 5.6% of total inventory. For that price range it is especially important to outperform the competition in order to get your home sold. The best price range compared to inventory levels is the 150-200K range with only 19.6% of the inventory and 30% of the sales.



It is also important to look at absorption rates. Looking at the best performing price range of 150K-200k, you will note that 30 units sold in the last 30 days and there are currently 312 units on the market. This represents a 10.4 month supply of inventory. This is calculated by taking 312 units on the market for that price range ÷ 30 units sold in a month. Keep in mind this is an average supply. The better-positioned properties might sell in two months while others may take 2 years. So, even in the best performing price-range, it is important to be competitive.



We want your listing to be one of those that sells quickly. Price it better than your competitors, make any necessary repairs, paint it, clean it, declutter it and stage it and we will get it sold!



We hope you find this information to be useful and ask that you compare where you stand in the market. Please call with any questions,



Steve and Jana J. Tyson

252-675-9595







PRICE-RANGES 1588 TOTAL Homes On Market 5/15/11 % of Current Inventory

0-100K 196 12.3%

101-150K 335 21.0%

151-200K 312 19.6%

201-250K 207 13.0%

251-300K 161 10.0%

301-350K 75 4.7%

351-400K 85 5.3%

401-500K 89 5.6%

501-600k 57 3.5%

601-700K 28 1.8%

701K & Over 43 2.7%

Barrier of Entry

A barrier of entry to live in Scarsdale and other elite areas of Westchester are the property taxes. This is a key reason why Westhchester has not truly stabilized. Buyers aren't balking at the prices, it is the property taxes that they are screaming about.

One of the rights that a homeowner has is to appeal their taxes by filing a tax grievances. And according to this NYT article a record number are successfully accomplishing that. It has also created a booming industry for contingency-fee assessment reduction.

I recommend reading this article because it explains why property taxes are a complete FUBAR in Westchester. Although there is no direct explanation, if you read between the lines, you can understand why towns like Scarsdale are against a property tax cap.

Flawed as it is, the current system allows a tremendous amount of flexibility. Since the current system issues a aggregate valuation increase each year applying to all properties. There is no individual assessment of properties. Placing a property tax cap would prevent taxes from going up, but it would also prevent them from going down.

According to Howard Rattner, the city’s finance commissioner of New Rochelle, he feels that once the housing market stabilizes, the grievances will drop because prices will be so low.

He is very wrong. Even after the market stabilizes, it is still going to cost an arm and a leg to pay for property taxes and as long as the tax grievance process is easy as pie, there will be no end to this.

Home Prices

By NICK TIMIRAOS And DAWN WOTAPKA


Home values posted the largest decline in the first quarter since late 2008, prompting many economists to push back their estimates of when the housing market will hit a bottom.



.Home values fell 3% in the first quarter from the previous quarter and 1.1% in March from the previous month, pushed down by an abundance of foreclosed homes on the market, according to data to be released Monday by real-estate website Zillow.com. Prices have now fallen for 57 consecutive months, according to Zillow.



Last year, the housing market showed signs of improving as price depreciation slowed in some markets and stabilized in others. In response, a number of economists began forecasting that housing would hit a bottom in late 2011, then begin to recover. But the improvements, spurred by federal programs that gave buyers up to $8,000 in tax credits, proved fleeting. Sales collapsed when the credits expired last summer, and prices in many markets have been falling ever since.



While most economists expected sales to decline after tax credits expired, the drag on the market has been greater than many anticipated. "We expected December and January to be bad" as the market reeled from the after-effects of the tax credit, said Stan Humphries, Zillow's chief economist. But monthly declines for February and March were "really staggering," he said. They indicate "a reflection of the true underlying demand, which is now apparent because most of the tax credit is out of the system, and it's being completely overwhelmed by supply."



Mr. Humphries now believes prices won't hit bottom before next year and expects they will fall by another 7% to 9%. Other economists revised their forecasts. In April, the chief economist at mortgage company Fannie Mae, Doug Duncan, said home prices in the second quarter would be 5.3% lower than the previous-year period, down from his earlier estimate of a 2.6% decline.





Associated Press



An abundance of foreclosed homes on the market are pushing down home values.

.The estimates, which are based on data from the mid-1990s on, come from a proprietary computer program that takes into account sale prices for nearby homes that appear comparable, the size and other physical attributes of the home, its sales history and tax-assessment data, Mr. Humphries says.



Prices are decelerating in large part because the many foreclosed properties that often sell at a discount force other sellers to lower their prices. Mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have sold more than 94,000 foreclosed homes during the first quarter, a new high that represented a 23% increase from the previous quarter. More could be on the way: They held another 218,000 properties at the end of March, a 33% increase from a year ago.



The companies are bracing for more bad news: On Friday, Fannie reported a $6.5 billion net loss, largely as it boosted loan-loss reserves in anticipation of falling home prices.



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.Paul Dales, a senior U.S. economist with Capital Economics, says prices could fall by as much as 10%, down from his previous forecasts of around 5%. A March survey of more than 100 economists by MacroMarkets LLC forecasts a 1.4% drop in prices this year, down from the December estimate of a 0.2% decline.



Other home-price indexes also show weakness. The widely followed Case-Shiller index published by Standard & Poor's showed that prices climbed from April 2009 until last summer, when they started declining as tax credits expired. Today, prices are on the verge of reaching new lows, the index shows. The Case-Shiller index tracks repeat sales of previously owned homes using a three-month moving average.



According to the Zillow index, a handful of California markets and Washington, D.C., saw price appreciation last year, but that has since reversed. Mr. Humphries attributes the "double dip" in those markets, which include Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, to the way in which the tax credit stimulated demand from buyers. When the tax credit went away, markets were left with rising supply from foreclosures but with less demand from buyers.



Detroit, Chicago and Minneapolis posted the largest declines during the first quarter of the top 25 metro areas tracked by Zillow, while Pittsburgh, Dallas and Washington posted the smallest declines.



To be sure, steep declines in home prices along with mortgage rates near their lowest levels in decades have helped make housing more affordable than at any time in the past 30 years, according to Zillow. Markets that have lower levels of foreclosures, such as Dallas, and those with better job-growth prospects, such as Washington, are faring better.



However, credit standards remain tight, posing another challenge for the housing market. Just as many unqualified borrowers received loans during the boom, "there are people today who probably could afford loans but can't get them," says David Berson, chief economist at PMI Group Inc. The average credit score on loans backed by Fannie Mae stood at 762 in the first quarter, up from an average of 718 for the 2001-2004 period.



Joe Sullivan, a real-estate agent in Stockton, Calif., is worried that more traditional buyers are seeing their loan applications canceled late in the process as lenders change qualification terms. If mortgage standards continue tightening, prices are "going to drop down to where only investors can get them, people with cash money," he said. Sales to absentee buyers, primarily investors, accounted for 47% of all Phoenix-area home sales in March, the highest level for any month in more than a decade, according to DataQuick, a real-estate research firm.



Christine Rice spent two years looking to buy a home in Los Angeles but found herself continually losing out to bids from investors offering to pay in cash. In September, she finally made a winning bid, paying $275,000 for a two-bedroom home. The prospect of falling prices "doesn't keep me up at night, but only because it was so cheap," says the 43-year-old tailor, who says she and her husband needed to move to have more space for their family. Her mortgage payments plus taxes are less than the rent she had been paying. "If it had been a stretch, then maybe I'd be worried," she says.



Buyers who qualify for mortgages are demanding bigger discounts as added insurance against further declines in values. Sellers, meanwhile, are balking. "More often, they don't want to take the first offer," says Jeffrey Otteau, president of Otteau Valuation Group, an East Brunswick, N.J., appraisal firm. "What they don't realize is, in an oversupplied market, the next offer is for less."



While some analysts have argued that home prices need to fall to "clearing prices" that will attract more buyers, price declines could also complicate any recovery by pushing more borrowers under water. Zillow estimates that more than 28% of borrowers owe more than their homes are worth nationally. Those numbers are much higher in hard-hit markets such as Phoenix, where more than two-thirds of borrowers owe more than their homes are worth.

New Bern Home Sales 2011

2011 Home Sales to date

Total Home Sales thru 4-30-2011=383
Of the 383 (78) were new construction
The average list price was $165,000
The average Sell price was $157,000

Nationally, according to trulia, 40% of home sales were bank owned or short sales. While we are seeing distressed sales in our market, I am guessing it is closer to 25-30%.

Last year through the same time period there were 356 homes sold. So to date we are up around 8%.

Drop It Like It's Hot

It's dropping. But not because it is hot.

This broker's link, displays all the price reductions of they have listed from Scarsdale.

As you can see, it is getting hot out there. Hot in reductions. Regardless, it is still not enough for buyers to come out of the woodwork. There are deals out there, but there is also a lot of homes that need work or in no way in hell reflect the seller's price.

It is going to be a FUBAR of a summer in the burbs.

About Time.

Osama Bin Laden is dead.

I hope this brings you all some peace.

Zoning laws

Frank Graham inherited a 600-acre wooded tract located about a half mile outside a small town in rural North Carolina. With the economy turning around he is considering moving forward with development of the tract. He has been thinking a residential subdivision and shopping center would fit nicely on this tract. He thinks a portion of the land might also be great for some industrial development or maybe even a mobile home park. Frank remembered seeing something in the papers about the county adopting zoning a few years ago. So before setting off on this project, he thinks it would be prudent to run his ideas by his cousin Eddie Graham, who is the long-term county manager for the county where this property is located.



Frank drops by Eddie’s office. After exchanging pleasantries and catching up about their mutual relatives, Frank briefly sketches out his thoughts about development of his tract. “Well,” Eddie says, “sounds like you have some good ideas. A good starting point even if a bit controversial. But I’m afraid I can’t be of much help. You need to go see the folks at town hall. City zoning applies out there.”



Frank is confused. “Eddie, I don’t follow all this government stuff the way you do, but I’m pretty sure this land is still out in the county. The town may be growing out that way, but I think I’d remember if it had been annexed. I’m pretty sure I don’t pay city taxes on that land. Are you sure about city zoning?”



“It’s outside the city,” Eddie explains, “but it has been subject to city planning and zoning a long time. They got ETJ at least a decade ago.” “



“And what, pray tell, is ETJ?” Frank asks.

“ETJ” is shorthand for extraterritorial jurisdiction. In this context, it is the authority of a city to apply its planning and development regulations to adjacent areas outside the city limits. Folks like Frank often want to know if this is legal and, if so, how it came to be.



For many years states have authorized municipal regulation of extraterritorial areas to protect public health and safety. For example in the early 1800′s Georgia allowed Savannah to prohibit rice farms within a mile of the city and Maryland allowed Baltimore to apply health regulations to ships within three miles of the city. Most other states followed suit. The North Carolina supreme court in 1912 upheld a law giving Greensboro authority to impose sanitary regulations in the area one mile beyond the city limits. State v. Rice, 158 N.C. 635, 74 S.E. 582 (1912). The legislature in 1917 gave all cities the authority to adopt similar health and safety regulations for areas within a mile of the city limits, an authority that is found today in G.S. 160A-193.



So how did the municipal authority in North Carolina to regulate nuisances in adjacent areas get extended to allow city planning, zoning, subdivision, and other regulations in extraterritorial areas?

As zoning and other land use regulations first came into widespread use in North Carolina, planning and development regulation were almost exclusively municipal concerns. Most cities of any size had adopted zoning by the late 1940s. By contrast, a handful of urban counties had gotten individual approval to adopt zoning, but most counties in the state had no authority to adopt zoning ordinances until 1959. As the post–World War II development boom took off, a good deal of the development occurred along the urban fringe, often in unregulated areas just outside of city corporate limits. The Institute of Government’s land use law expert, Phil Green, observed in 1953 that most of this fringe area development was taking place in “relatively chaotic fashion.”



To deal with this issue of unregulated development on the urban fringe, several cities sought authority to adopt “perimeter zoning.” Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Gastonia, and Tarboro were granted a one-mile ETJ for planning regulations in 1949. By 1958, nineteen municipalities had secured similar local legislation as extraterritorial zoning authority had been granted to Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Elizabeth City, Farmville, Gastonia, Goldsboro, Greensboro, High Point, Jacksonville, Kinston, Mooresville, Raleigh, Salisbury, Snow Hill, Spencer, Statesville, Tarboro, and Winston-Salem. At this point the legislature decided to look into whether this authority should be extended to all cities.



The Municipal Government Study Commission examined the issue in 1958 and came to this conclusion:



The Commission recognizes that municipalities have a special interest in the areas immediately adjacent to their limits. These areas, in the normal course of events, will at some time be annexed to the city, bringing with them any problems growing out of chaotic and disorganized development. Even prior to that time they affect the city. Health and safety problems arising outside the city do not always respect city limits as they spread . . . . Subdividers of land outside the city commonly wish to tie to city water and sewerage systems. New industrial and commercial development may, for a variety of reasons, take place just outside the corporate limits.



The study commission recommended that all cities with populations at least 2,500 be granted a one-mile area of extraterritorial jurisdiction and that cities with larger populations be granted up to five miles of extraterritorial jurisdiction, provided the county agreed. The commission noted the concern that residents of these areas were not entitled to vote in city elections and recommended mandatory representation of extraterritorial residents on city planning boards and boards of adjustment “to meet this objection in a practical and yet legal manner.” The legislature adopted the bulk of the study commission’s recommendations and granted statewide authority for municipal extraterritorial land use regulation in 1959. The statute on extraterritorial jurisdiction has undergone a number of amendments since its enactment. The current statutory scheme of tiered extraterritorial jurisdiction of one to three miles based on city population was adopted in 1971.





ETJ Boundary Sign

When a city adopts an extraterritorial boundary ordinance, the city acquires jurisdiction for all of its development ordinances and the county loses its jurisdiction for the same range of ordinances. This includes not only zoning and subdivision ordinances but also housing and building codes and regulations on historic districts and historic landmarks, open spaces, community development, erosion and sedimentation control, floodways, mountain ridges, and roadway corridors (though cities and counties can by mutual agreement modify this allocation). The city does not acquire, nor does the county lose, jurisdiction for regulations adopted under the general ordinance-making power of G.S. 160A-174, such as a nuisance lot, junked car, or noise ordinances. G.S. 160A-360 includes a detailed process that must be followed by a city in establishing extraterritorial jurisdiction, including newspaper notice, mailed notice, and public hearing requirements.



In certain instances, county approval must be given for a city to exercise its extraterritorial powers. G.S. 160A-360(a) requires county approval whenever a city with a population of more than 10,000 seeks to extend its extraterritorial jurisdiction beyond one mile. G.S. 160A-360(e) requires that county approval be secured for the extension of city extraterritorial jurisdiction into any area wherein the county is enforcing zoning, subdivision regulations, and the building code. This includes the one-mile area adjacent to cities.



A 2005 survey by the School of Government indicated that 62% of the responding North Carolina cities had adopted extraterritorial zoning. Cites with larger populations are far more likely to have done so than their less populous counterparts. The overwhelming majority (85%) of cities with ETJ only exercise this jurisdiction within one mile of the city limits.



A principal concern with granting municipalities extraterritorial power has been the lack of political representation for extraterritorial residents. The legal aspects of this concern were largely resolved when the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that federal constitutional guarantees of due process and equal protection are not violated when states grant municipalities extraterritorial jurisdiction without extending the right to vote in municipal elections to extraterritorial residents. Holt Civic Club v. City of Tuscaloosa, 439 U.S. 60, 70–75 (1978).



While most cities in the state have had authority to adopt extraterritorial development regulations for over a half-century, controversy remains. Several counties have established policies that limit their approval of new municipal ETJ to those areas that are planned to be annexed within a set time or where the city can show it has plans to extend urban services. Bills have been introduced in the 2011 session of the General Assembly to exempt farms from ETJ areas or farming from coverage by city regulations in the ETJ (H. 168, H. 195, S. 380), to limit ETJ to “urban purposes” (H. 797), and to prohibit ETJ where there is county zoning and to allow ETJ residents to vote in city elections (H. 281).



Frank Graham had straightforward questions. What is ETJ, is it legal, and why was it allowed? Those questions have straightforward answers. The more difficult questions revolve around how the state should state organize its local governments to deal with growth and development on urban fringes. How do we best manage the transition from rural to suburban? Who should plan for orderly and efficient growth in these areas? Which units of government should provide what types of urban services? How should provision of services be coordinated with planning and development regulation? How should cities and counties coordinate their planning efforts? How should we manage for transitions in jurisdiction over time? What is fair, reasonable, equitable, and effective for cities, for counties, and for residents and landowners in these areas? Those questions are likely to be before our city councils, county boards of commissioners, and the legislature for some time to come. As long as they are, we will continue to grapple with the broader implications of Frank’s questions.



Tags: ETJ, Jurisdiction, Planning, Zoning



This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 12th, 2011 at 3:56 PM and is filed under Land Use. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

One Response to “Can a City Really Zone Land Outside the City?”

Jamie Wood

April 13, 2011 at 8:56 AMIf the city has a health and safety concern for the ETJ and its establishment does that give the city police power over the ETJ or is that still classified as the county?



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